President Trump told reporters on Monday that he will not use “dirt” from foreign countries in the 2020 campaign. “Well, I never did use [it],” Trump claimed, when asked if he would swear off the use of foreign “dirt” during the 2020 election. “As you probably know, that’s what the Mueller report was all about. They said, ‘No collusion.’” The president also said he would “certainly agree” to the pledge because he didn’t “need” it. “All I need is the opponents that I’m looking at. I’m liking what I see,” he said, according to a pool report. According to Newsweek, the president read aloud portions of stolen Democratic Party documents published by WikiLeaks during an October 2016 rally in Pennsylvania. He also repeatedly praised the organization during the 2016 campaign.
In February, the Trump campaign refused to pledge not to use hacked materials in 2020, when asked about it by The Daily Beast. “We’re not in the business of taking pledges invented by the liberal online media,” Kayleigh McEnany, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said. Every Democratic candidate running for the White House has pledged not to knowingly use hacked materials.